This Christmas, be Flabbergasted!

Today I am so honored to be a guest in the 12 Days of Home for the Holidays Christmas feature at D's Paper Studio. The posts have been so wonderful to read and are all about special memories and family traditions for the holiday. For my post, I shared a story about how we were reminded that there aren't any rules about the magic of Christmas time thanks to a little green skeleton and our sweet little girl Emma. Be sure to visit Debbie's blog to read the full story. On my blog here, I thought I would share a bit more about the project featured with the story there.

For a project, I shared a re-make of this project. . .

You might remember this project from the summer. I made it for a sample for CHA for Tim Holtz. (You can find the original post and details HERE.) At the time when I made this project, I knew I would eventually give it a slight make over. The skeleton reminded me of the skeleton in our family's flabbergasted story. I really wanted to create a Christmas themed box but since the box was a show sample, I kept it Halloween. I didn't think many people would get or appreciate a Christmas Skeleton box!

So finally, when Christmas decorations hit the stores, I went shopping for supplies for the Christmas re-do.

I found a fun little LED light up tree that was just the right size for the box. I found a fun mini snowflakes, a bead garland, and fun mini sting lights for the tree. I added pre-made mini packages around the tree. (The tree, snowflakes and garland are from Michaels, the string lights and packages are Jolee's Boutique.)

For the skeleton, I used green Copic markers (YG03 and YG11) to color over the embossing powder finish originally applied to him. I found a fun Santa outfit that I was able to adjust a bit to fit him. I draped the bead garland off of the tree and wired it into his hand so that it would look as if he is dressing the tree.

A glittered Grungepaper die cut spider adorns the corner to keep the box still on the spooky side.

Along the bottom, I die cut a Tattered Banner from manila cardstock. After coloring it with ink, I stamped out our family's traditional traditional phrase, "Be merry, Be bright, Be flabbergasted".

This Santa Skeleton and his tree make me smile. It is just a perfectly fun little reminder of such a special story in our family. I think when the holidays are over, this piece will stay out in my studio and not be packed away with the holiday decor. I think that the meaning behind it is one that we could use a reminder of year round.

Tammy, I love the story and your reminder project. I applaud you on allowing your daughter to hang the skeleton on the tree. It is so important that we not squash the ideas and imagination of our children. It happens quickly enough. Congrats on your win at Tim’s.

This is such a fun project! I love both versions! I had two life sized skellies I used to dress up in bathing suits and sunglasses on Halloween and sit them on a bench in my yard. My DH would make me take them in at Christmas so I would sit them on my sofa with Santa hats. This so reminds me of them. Love it! TFS
BTW Congrats saw you won on the Tim Holtz blog! Enjoy the goodies as I am sure you will make something really beatific with it!

I love that story about your daughter 🙂 And the Christmas skeleton scene you’ve created is so cool–the belt around the skeleton guy just cracks me up! What would be fun too is a utee shrink skeleton flabbergasted (such a great word!) necklace.